Veterans return to Normandy to mark 78th anniversary of D-Day landing
Read my original short story in memory of D-Day titled Forever and a Day.
Category Archives: On This Day in History
On This Day in History: The Chios Massacre
The Chios Massacre
On the 11th April 1822 an army of some 40,000 Ottoman troops began landing on the Greek island of Chios, which is situated just 7 kilometers off the Turkish coastline of Anatolia, with express orders to kill all Christian infants under three years old, all males 12 years and older, and all females 40 and older, except those willing to convert to Islam.
Estimates suggest that up to three quarters of the 120,000 inhabitants were slain, enslaved or died of starvation or disease. With the remainder forced to flee an ethnic cleansing which the Turks were to repeat with their genocide of the Armenians between 1915-1923.
On This Day in History: The Battle of Arogee, 1868
“Never Give Way to Barbarians” The British Abyssinian Expedition of 1868: A Matter of Honor
The Abyssinian Expedition of 1868 was unlike any military campaign before or since.
Today, the idea that an entire expeditionary force could be raised to invade a country on another continent and just to rescue eight people might seem unthinkable; however, that is what happened as a matter of course at the height of the Victorian age.
On this Day in History (12/2/1805): Napoleon Wins at Austerlitz
Napoleon’s Win At Austerlitz – His Greatest Success
On December 2, 1805, Napoleon achieved what many consider his greatest success. Outnumbered by the combined armies of the Russian Tsar Alexander I and the Austrian Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, he won a stunning victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.
A Lesson in How to NEVER GIVE UP, despite overwhelming odds!
On This Day in History: Remembering D-Day
Today take a moment to Remember the Military Men and Women who participated and gave their Lives in D-Day. And let General Patton’s words ring true:
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”
Seventy-two years ago, on June 6, 1944, Allied troops waded ashore on the beaches of Normandy to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe. The night before, on June 5, American airborne forces had landed on the western flank of the invasion area near Sainte-Mère-Église, while British airborne forces secured the eastern flank and Pegasus Bridge. They jumped out of C-47 Dakota transport planes, through darkness and into glory. Some arrived by glider. Pvt. John Steele of the 82nd Airborne landed on the steeple of the church at Sainte-Mère-Église. He managed to survive by playing dead.
Today a visitor to Sainte-Mère-Église can observe a mannequin representing Steele hanging from the church tower. Inside the church is a stained glass window of the Virgin Mary surrounded by American paratroopers.
On Utah Beach — all of the landing sites had code names — 56-year-old Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (the oldest son of former President Teddy Roosevelt) landed about a mile from his intended target. When asked whether to re-embark the 4th Infantry Division, he simply said, “We’ll start the war from right here!”
Prior to the landing, Omaha Beach, also known as Bloody Omaha, had received an abbreviated naval bombardment from ships such as the battleship Texas lasting only 35 minutes. The bare stretches of beach offered no cover for the American invaders as German machine guns from fortified gun emplacements swept the shorelines. The U.S. Rangers, who had trained earlier on the cliffs of Dorset, scaled the sheer cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc while being shot at by German soldiers. Their mission was to destroy artillery pieces targeting the landing zones. Their commander was Lt. Col. James Rudder. Unknown to Rudder’s Rangers, most of the artillery had already been moved by the Germans. They held their position for two days in the face of fierce counterattacks by the German’s 916th Grenadiers. At the Ranger memorial at Pointe du Hoc, one can still see massive craters created by the Allied naval bombardment.
The Canadians stormed ashore on Juno Beach. James Doohan, who later played Scotty on Star Trek, was among the Canadian soldiers that day. Sword and Gold Beaches were reserved for the British forces. A small contingent of French commandos joined the British on Sword and helped capture Ouistreham, destroying the casino there. One French officer who had previously lost at the tables was not sorry to see the casino in ruins that day.
With the D-Day landing, the Allies, despite the vast size of their armada and the relative openness of their societies, achieved a remarkable strategic surprise over the Germans. On June 6, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was in Germany celebrating his wife’s 50th birthday. Adolph Hitler was persisting in the mistaken belief that the Normandy invasion was a feint and that the real blow would be struck at Pas de Calais.
Eisenhower planned the invasion from his offices at 20 Grosvenor Square in London. Number 1 Grosvenor Square was the wartime location of the American embassy. Averell Harriman presided over lend-lease aid from 3 Grosvenor Square, helping to fund our wartime Allies. The OSS (Office of Strategic Services), forerunner of the CIA, had its offices at 70 Grosvenor Square. Small wonder that this neighborhood was known as Little America at the time. Some wags even referred to Grosvenor Square as Eisenhowerplatz.
Imagine if an operation like the Normandy landing were to occur today in 2016. In the age of social media, interactive polls would ask: “Which beach do you prefer, Normandy or Pas de Calais?” Could all the members of the 101st Screaming Eagles, painted in Indian war paint with Mohawk haircuts, be counted upon not to post their pictures on Facebook? That seems doubtful.
This June 6, raise a glass and toast the heroism of all those young men who fought to liberate America’s oldest ally from Nazi occupation. Without their service and sacrifice, our world would be a darker place.
General Patton may have summed it up best when he said, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”
Read the Original Article at Military Times
The Tactical Hermit 
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